Building a MacPro, Yes, a MacPro not a Hackintosh Options

[Harloe]

Yeah I'll definately make sure I don't get screwed over and end up paying an awful lot! =O

Do you own any other Macs other than a Hackintosh?

[nagal]

This would be my first Mac and I am loving it.

[Harloe]

Hoooly cow =O You BUILT your first Mac, I envy you. I wish I had held out and bought a MacPro, I don't get much use out of the portability of my MBP! But I still love it. So building a MacPro would be a good learning curve for a novice modder/builder like me and also set me up for life with a powerful computer =]

[RouteZeroDesign]

Incredible build and write up. im very impressed with how easy (relatively) it was to build a macpro out of parts.
Il definitely consider this when it comes to building my workstation.....Currently i just use my macbook and im working on a triple 22" panoramic screen for when i get a decent PC/Mac pro.

I suggest that the reason your fans are very noisy is because you have solid mounted them to the case. If at all possible you should isolate the fans from the case by using rubber grommets and foam pads.
The fans vibrate when they are spinning and if solidly mounted, will just resonate and amplify the noise throughout the case.

Rubber mounting your fans, hard drives and disk drives might be an easier option to pursue rather than watercooling, but its your decision.
I guess rubber grommets and sound deadening dont have the same sex appeal that cooling your computer with water does lol

[nagal]

The noise is not vibration, it sounds like a jet engine taking off. It is because the computer thinks the cpus are over heating and running all fans at full speed in attempt to cool them down. I am going to go to radio shack and pick up some variable resistors and hook them into the jacks where the CPU thermal sensor would go if I had Apple heat sinks. This way I can dial in a "temp reading". Of course I would much prefer to find some thermal sensors that work. I might be able to make my own sensors. Once I know what Ohm range is needed to set what temps then I can hunt down the correct thermistors and wire them into a 2 pin jack.

I had to tear everything down last night and I looked at the water cooling aspect again. The system will boot without a drive in Bay 1 but it is still such a tight fit to get everything (radiator, CPU blocks ,pump) in, it will take a good bit of work. I may just pass on the water cooling part as I want to spend time using my system versus modding it I did replace all the apple fans with Yate Loons and they are almost whisper quiet and keeping the system temps at a reasonable level so far.

I did discover one problem so far. My system does not register as a Mac Pro in System Profiler so I can not apply any of the firmware updates. This could also be related to why my cpus are only reporting as 2.13 GHz instead of 2.4 GHz. I am right now researching how to force flash the BootRom to get around this but not having much luck. I ran into another person with the same issue and we both self built our Mac Pro and got our logic boards from the same place.

[Harloe]

Hmm do you think this could be a huge problem? Not receiving the firmware updates? Or do you think you can find a way to get around this? If so please post it here =D I wonder why you can't get firmware updates if it is a licensed version of OS X! =[

[nagal]

It has nothing to do with a licensed version of OS X, it is all about the logic board not reporting itself as a Mac Pro. No clue if this is a huge problem or not.

[aqua-mac]

Nagal,

Can you put up a grab of what system Profiler is reporting your system as?

[nagal]

Amazingly I had emailed the information to myself at work this morning so here it is

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac
Model Identifier: M43ADP1,1
Processor Speed: 2.13 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: AAPLM431.004E.B00
SMC Version: 1.7f0
Serial Number: System Serial#

[~pcwiz]

Read this forum topic:

http://forums.macnn.com/65/mac-pro-and-pow...rmware-causing/

The OP seems to have the same problem as you. Or were you the one that made that topic?

EDIT: Ha ha I see...this guy is the person you are talking about that has the same problem

[aqua-mac]

AHA, Apple Development platform. The 1,1 is what is reported by a mac pro, (MacPro 1,1) so I think your processors are the items that are causing the system not to be recognized as a mac pro. That could be tricky. As you say probably within the firmware is a compatibility list in the same way a PC motherboard bios recognizes and reports the CPU as a particular type. Would be interesting to look inside the firmware.

[~pcwiz]

Yeah the other guy with the same problem is also using Engineering Samples too so that could be the problem. The other possibility is a bogus logic board. Both nagal and the other guy bought the logic board from the same place apparently (mac-pro.com).

[aqua-mac]

Yeah, I just read your post after I posted, you must type just a tad faster than me!! lol.

[nagal]

Read this forum topic:

http://forums.macnn.com/65/mac-pro-and-pow...rmware-causing/

The OP seems to have the same problem as you. Or were you the one that made that topic?

Yup already on that thread and we both got the logic boards from the same place. Might not mean anything but its interesting coincidence.

AHA, Apple Development platform. The 1,1 is what is reported by a mac pro, (MacPro 1,1) so I think your processors are the item I that are causing the system not to be recognized as a mac pro. That could be tricky. As you say probably within the firmware is a compatibility list. Would be interesting to look inside the firmware.

I am not sure its the CPUs causing it but I am not ruling that out either. The easy answer would be to grab some 2.0 GHz Dual Core Xeons and throw them in and see what happens. I am also going to look into the whole Open Firmware thing and see what I can find out. I know you can no longer boot into Open Firmware on the EFI Macs but you can still get at the properties through terminal or so my research would indicate. My thinking is maybe I can trick the system into thinking its a Mac Pro just so I can install the firmware update and then it will remember its a Mac Pro Of course there is a high chance I might brick the board so I need to have a spare $500 on hand to buy a new one if I do. Ahh... the fun of trailblazing new frontiers

So my current options are:

1. Do nothing and enjoy 8 cores of goodness on a "Development" Mac
2. Tinker around with Open Firmware to trick the firmware upgrade into running. Bricking possible.
3. Find a pair of Xeon 5130 put them in and rule out the CPUs as the cause.

3 Involves a good bit of cash for a just see factor. 2 might involve a good bit cash as well.

[Harloe]

Ah I see now, I thought it'd be within the OS but that's gonna be tricky if it's the processors or Logic Board.. hmm. Changing the processors just seems a little too simple and to good to be true lol, I hope you'll be able to get it running with official firmware updates =D

[~pcwiz]

Another thread to read:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=398406

[aqua-mac]

Think it is the same guy.

[nagal]

So I got a reply from Mac-Pro.com "We have no control over Apple's firmware. Sorry, nothing we can do." Nice. So.... no help from that area.

Tonight I will be playing with the Open Firmware just to see what properties I have access to. I will of course post here what I find out.

[~pcwiz]

Great Keep us posted. Also, do you plan to include the original Mac Pro Bluetooth? They have the Bluetooth module for Mac Pro on Mac-Pro.com for $49.99 here:

http://www.mac-pro.com/Bluetooth-Module-Up...p;category=6223

[nagal]

A few things to report.

I ordered the wrong screws for mounting the power supply, doh! There are 2 sets of mounting holes on the PSU, one set is M3 which is what I ordered the other is M4 which is what you need. Luckily Lowes carries M4s. Unluckily I bought Socket Head screws and these prevents HD Sled 3 from sliding in. I removed the one screw that was the issue and HD Sled 3 went right in. At least I have 3 of the 4 mounting screws in.

Hooking up a variable resistor to the CPU heat sink sensor jack did nothing which is odd. The thermal sensors are just thermistors which are heat controlled variable resistors. I tried a 500K Ohm and 5M Ohm variable resistor and no difference in CPU heatsink temp read outs. I am wondering if my "developer" firmware has something to do with it.

A post in Aqua-Macs mod thread got me thinking. His Hack was reporting as a Mac Pro. At the time I could not remember which kext was responsible but I did remember later on that it is AppleSMBIOS.kext. Now there is nothing in the Info.plist that controls these variables so I download the source for AppeSMBIOS.kext and I am installing Xcode right now. I am going to compile my own kext that will report the proper values for Model Name, Model Identifier and Boot ROM Version to System Profiler. I am *hoping* once this is done, the MacPro EFI Firmware Updater will run. Its a long shot as there is no telling where the EFI Firmware Updater gets the values it uses to determine if it is running on the appropriate machine.